Friday, June 26, 2009

Sandy Talks Out Of His Binhole

Our beloved leader Sandy Beach is spouting off about the deplorable state of our streets in today's Isle of Thanet Gazunder. Not that in his blinkered, cosy little wall-to-wall-carpeted world he could possibly imagine anything's wrong. No. Not our Sandy.

Following last week's front page headline 'Rubbish Ghettos', Sandy says: 'I thought it was one of the most negative and inaccurate (headlines) I have ever read'. The Tory Commissar then dons his rose-tinted D&Gs and spouts forth about how everything 'looked great' when he toured the isle with Gazunder reporter Saul Leese this week. Really Sandy? Everything 'looks great' does it?

Well tell that to the frail little old ladies who I witnessed trying to negotiate the landfill of crap that is Augusta Road, while I was on my way to buy this week's paper. One of them, sporting (if that's the right word) a zimmer frame, was discussing with her friend how best to get past the mountain of dirty nappies, Stella cans and food waste that was spewed all over the pavement. Evidently they were on their way from the sheltered flats on the corner of Wellington Crescent and Disgusta Road into town to do some shopping. Eventually they gingerly stepped into the road where they were narrowly missed by a car. I could publish a picture of the mess, but to be honest it would be the same as the one I published more than two years ago. Since when you've done cock-all about the problem, presumably because there are no Tory votes in this area.

So, Sandy, instead of blaming the seagulls, or the residents who pay your ludicrous expenses, why not look at your administration and see where it is failing? There are thousands of wheelie bins lying idle down at the port. People are quoted in this week's paper as saying they'd even pay for wheelie bins. And if some areas aren't suitable for wheelies, then introduce continental style communal bins at the end of each street. If not, perhaps you could give us one good reason why we shouldn't bag you up and put you out for the birds!

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plain Jane said the best thing ever - "cull a councillor" and start with those who cost us the most and are frankly out of touch with reality - spending their time at the golf club and other such places, get down to Ramsgate and see what the rest of us encounter everyday! Rubbish, and more rubbish everywhere!No good having branded blue tshirts for the bin men and all new outfits if they won't actually get them dirty doing their jobs!

Peter C said...

I wish those Ramsgate conspiracy theorists would take a walk down some of the back streets of Margate & Cliftonville too...

Linda said...

If there are enough wheelie bins at the port at Ramsgate and I have see some at Margate tip, why oh why can't they been put into service. Of course I am stupid...... who would give bins to the ones right by the sea where the seagulls are? Cliftonville(the slightly posher end)and I guess Broadstairs are well cared for. It once again is a no brainer.

Anonymous said...

Do you think Sandy's walkabout was a bit like when the Queen goes somewhere -everything neat and tidy, spick and span then back to normal afterwards? Did they pick the route carefully to ensure there'd be no rubbish in the chosen areas?

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't have known about the wheelie (or should we say static, 'cos it doesn't look like they are going anywhere) bins if it was not for this blog. I have read all sorts of things in the paper about bins/seagulls/payment etc but no one has mentioned the bins sitting at the port at all. I even went down to have a look at them, I could not believe the answer was right in front of our faces and nobody is even mentioning it, let alone doing anything about it! Plain Jane's article even had a picture of them but did not mention where they were or the fact that they should be handed out, surely simpler than buying a bin then deducting it from your council tax?

It is so simple, people could even just come down and collect them, you wouldn't need to buy one. Surely if you produce evidence of where you live etc you could be handed one. Not a difficult process to police I would have thought.

As usual I get more up to date political information from this blog than I do the press or the councillors! I know people bleat on about ballot not blog, but communication is everything and thanks for keeping us informed.

Anonymous said...

Ballots, Blogs and Democracy!! Surely you cannot mean Thanet?

The Isle of Thanet should surely be re-branded as The Isle de rubbish?

Standards TDC - standards. TDC has low standards and is keeping them that way...how low can TDC go, "you ask"? Lower than a crushed Stella can in Disgusta road.

Anonymous said...

1.31 I agree with Plain Jane - could supply no end of sport - on the lines of fox hunting.

Anonymous said...

I don't get the explanation for not rolling out wheelie bins either. According to the figures they are quoting, 77% of Thanet homes have already been issued with them. I am (apparently) one of just 13% of homes to which they have not been sent. But the reason given was that the Council couldn't afford to collect them. The Council already collects my rubbish in bags and then has to pay someone to clean up the streets afterwards. How can it be more efficient to do this than to give me a wheelie bin? My house is totally suited to having a wheelie bin so I don't get the explanation that has been given. Are we looking at a situation where some tw*t on the Council has messed up and has signed a contract to collect old bins for the next five years and so, this is what now has to happen?

P.S. Can't we get someone to take Peter Checksfield away?

Anonymous said...

It's not long ago that Sandy and co heralded a whole new world of better and more efficient cleansing services by bringing them in house rather than contracting them out.

Have things improved? Not from where I'm sitting. Give them all the (black) sack!

Anonymous said...

Difficult for the Council to spend money on things like street cleaning when they're spending OUR money on trying to become property developers and entertainment producers.

Anonymous said...

6.40couldnt be a more true word said - perhaps Sandy and his mates should start with the basics of what a district council are meant to do and build from there - rubbish collection being the most important thing! I remember the picture of the 20 or so new rubbish collection lorries being banded about everywhere! surely that is enough lorries to deal with Thanet! Ah let me guess they bought them 5-7 years ago and didnt buy ones that tip wheelie bins and there isnt money to replace them - that might be more like the truth? Lack of vision problem again - most likely?

Anonymous said...

Always in streets they are - and in pairs they always are. May The force of the black bag be with you.

Old binliner

Anonymous said...

The more eagle eyed readers of this week's Gazunder will have realised that apart from Sandy's article about there being no rubbish in Thanet, there are no less than six other page leads - most of them further forward in the paper than his - about different aspects of how much rubbish is piling up in Thanet.

I take my hat off to the lovely Rebecca and her team for such clever news management! And then to write the headline 'rubbish article' over Sandy's item is the cherry on the cake.

Sandy must be fuming for trying to deny the obvious. Worthy of a mention on the journos website Hold The Front Page methinks. Well done Gazunder - and it's not often I say that.

Anonymous said...

The ***t coloured spectacles of you and your readers are tainted with partisan biase ECR. Thanet is not awash with rubbish, much as you wish it to be. No more so than any other town I have been in anyway. And as many of your readers have said before, it is the shamefully dirty habits of residents who fail to take charge of their own detritus that is the real cause of the problem.

But that is the nature of your socialist state. A nation grown up not even willing to spend a few quid of their own money to buy a receptacle to contain their own waste. Let alone pick up after the seagulls have split the bag open on their front doorstep.

There are those who contribute, and those take, and we all know which category you and your sycophants fall into.

Laurence Davies said...

Cllr Ezekiel states in his article “that out of approximately 62,000 homes around Thanet we have almost 8,000 that are still left with either black bins or residents use black sacks only” In an e-mail sent to me dated 8th May 2009 from the Business Manager for Environmental Services she stated “We already provided wheeled bin collections to approximately 41,000 of the 64,000 properties in Thanet” Making 23,000 properties without a wheeled collection! Not 8,000. Why the discrepancy? Can someone in Authority explain?


Finally regarding the posting from Anonymous @11:13 I would think more of you if you had the guts to publish your name rather than HIDE behind anonymity!

Anonymous said...

Along the prom at Margate today past Droit House, people had actually made the effort of putting their rubbish in the bins. Unfortunately, no one from the council had made the effort of emptying them so they were overflowing onto the pavement. Are Visitors and people out enjoying themselves not supposed to eat and drink? On the other hand I agree that people with seagull problems should fork out a tenner for their own bins. Do they want their arses wiped or what?

Richard Eastcliff said...

I have actually forked out for my own bins, Numbnuts (11:13am). And I do clear up any mess outside the old cliff top mansion on bin day.

So do stop crapping on about 'socialists', you're beginning to sound like that old fart Roger Gale. You must be mad, bad and sad if you think that wanting value for money from your council tax by having proper, well run cleansing services is a sign of some commie plot. I'd get the old bonce once-overed for Thatcher-style dementia toute de suite if I were you!

Anonymous said...

Looks like 11:13 has you on the backfoot EC Dick.

Seems to me that he thinks he has value for money and doesn't want to pay more because local scroats who should know better are too lazy to do their bit.

The way I see it I get a collection every week and there are loads of people in trucks or with trolleys patrolling around picking up bags or sweeping up the rubbish.

Its just that the British low life mentality is not to give a monkeys about chucking stuff around or letting it blow down the steet if the seagulls split their bag.

Why do you defend the scroats and then shaft honest workers? Seems to be an inverted logic somewhere. Or perhaps you are just thick?

Anonymous said...

I will defend ECR - it is not just all low life dropping rubbish ands too tired to pick it up! and anyway how can the average Thanetian spend all their lives picking up everyone else's rubbish, isnt that what the local authority are meant to do? or have i got it wrong not you? Many of us do our bit and of course personal pride means we pick up other people's rubbish on our own properties but there are limits and if whole streets are littered in flytipping and the like it is the authority's duty to deal with! rather than say they havent got the cash because they have spent it pandering to the plebs to get votes in the name of the Big event- do i have to be anymore blunt to one of Ezekiel's side kicks as 11.13 obviously is - we arent lefties just decent thanet people about had enough of the useless plonkers running the local wild west show called TDC

Anonymous said...

And on Tony Flaigs blog there is an interesting item saying the opposition leaders days are already numbered. So presumably his own group don't think he's up to the job of getting the road sweepers to do their job either.

Lucy Mail said...

Nice collection of words there, 10:14.
What do they mean, all lumped together like that?

Richard Eastcliff said...

You've got a point, 6:36pm. You're alright, so let's not bother trying to address the problem that blights other parts of the isle, or ask our cleansing department to be more efficient. Let's just blame it on the 'scroats'.

In fact, how about this for a final solution? We just round up all the scroats and put them in some sort of camp out at Manston. We could make them work on public projects, not pay them or feed them, then eventually they might die off. Failing that you could probably find some way of disposing of them humanely.

Cockmuncher.

the chairman said...

In my usual pedantic way I must point out that the correct spelling is scrotes, from scrotum, and is nothing to do with an ethnic group from the former Yugoslavia.

Anonymous said...

No ECR, its just a question of what used to be known as common and decent values and standards. Virtues that have been long lost since left leaning individuals encouraged the anything goes culture in our society. Tits in our newspapers, foul language on our TV's, purple bell end as flag proposed for Thanet, rubbish on our streets. All from the same stable. Rule Shitannia.

Anonymous said...

I like tits in newspapers.

Richard Eastcliff said...

The only tits we could do without are tits like you, 1:52pm.

At least you got the colour of our lovely Thanetian bell-end right today. Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

I have spent the past 4 years trying to improve the rubbish and fly tipping situation in West Dumpton area, I have been one of the first to put all the blame on the refuse collectors, not any more. There has been many who are to blame, firstly the road sweeper we used to have, spent all his time on his mobile phone or sitting on walls smoking, until following him for 3 hours noticed nothing was swept and only large items picked up with the giant tweezers, everything else was left. A firm complaint was sent to TDC. they removed the culprit, but meanders around Broadstairs. What a lovely life.
The other culprits which seem to enjoy litteringthe whole of Thanet are many of the school children who find it completely impossible to walk any where without stuffing their faces with food and drink, all the waste is then disgarded on our streets. You see the young people also on the buses eating take-a-ways with large drink containers, all of which is left either on the floor or leaking all over seats which we have to sit upon. We can not expect TDC to clear up after these selfish lazy people, most of these offenders have parents, these parents should have trained their offsprings to think of others and the environment.
What I would like to see started by TDC and with a vengeance, is to heavily fine all offenders to deter them from further littering.
We have had a lot of filth around flats in Thanet, this was caused by many things, not enough Bins supplied for the ammount of tenants, tenants not bothering to recycle (selfish again)excess bags left BY and not in the Bins, then causing rats. here are areas all over Thanet infested with Rats, when I first came to thanet in the 1972 I never even saw 1, in the past 4 years I have seen at least 50 in one small area of 1/2 mile radius. We act like pigs we attract Rats we have ourselves to blame.
I myself, do not want my refuse collection money to be increased higher, but if we do not educate these people and punish them for their crimes then we shall all have to PAY